thesirenwithnovoice

[thesirenwithnovoice]

Sir, you cleansed my soul with this.

"But Siren, how can you say this artist is great at writing cool women, when he sexualizes them so much?" Ahá, the point is: the labour of developing great female characters doesn't stop when you replace sexualized designs by ones with outfits that covers their bodies. They must have relevant roles and deep, non-stereotyped character constructions too. So for as incongruous as it might sound, it's perfectly possible for an artist do a great job at one of those aspects, yet lack on the other; and to me, that's Mashima's case.

One of the aspects I love the most about Fairy Tail is that it doesn't feel like a "boy's club" in which one or two woman are tolerated, but a manga in which man and woman coexist without hierarchy. Like you said (although we sadly lack in terms of body diversity), we have so many different female characters from all ages and personalities that go beyond the usual stereotypes, and the best part to me: they don't behave like "dream girls" or a prize for the male cast to win through their journey. I would say they simply feel like normal women, each one with their particularities, qualities and flaws.

We have Lucy, this feminine, happy and smart girl that loves reading. She may not be as skilled as her friends in the magic field, but her great hability of reading situations and charisma helps immensely solving puzzles and getting allies through the story (like Brandish, the Spirit King, etc - as you perfectly put into words, things that "add to the story overall");

We have Wendy, to me one of the few young girls I've seen in manga that actually acts her age: a hardworking, shy and respectful kid, despite owning a rare magic power (and that's indeed a great and adorable character);

And we have Elza, an extremely tough and rigorous woman, that holds a very girly side all at the same time; and contrary to what we usually see when it comes to stereotype of "strong female characters", she's also the first in the series to have an explicit love interest. Like you said, after we get to know her, behind the unapproachable facade she shows to the world (what's completely understandable, since we can't expect a warrior and traumatized person to open up to anyone), she's really affectionate with her friends and just as quirky and crazy as the rest of the guild.

And we have Mirajane, Levi, Bisca, Kagura, Porlyusica, and so many others (I confess Cana reminds me a lot of an old friend, that loved drinking, was very friendly and didn't take shit of anyone, heh).

Another cool point I saw someone here mentioning is that there's no female rivalry. The moment Lucy gets the mark, she's part of the guild, and no one is mad about her getting attention or expects her to prove her worth to be accepted - pretty much the opposite, Mira and Elza are there accepting her with open arms (maybe the only one that ever wants to compete for attention is Evergreen, but her behavior is explicit put as something negative, and no one buys her competition).

Do I wish many things were done differently and we didn't have so much cheap fanservice scenes? Everyday, and I'm not exxagerating when I say it hurts my heart to read some scenes. Yet, there are definitely qualities that, as a woman, still makes Fairy Tail SO PLEASURABLE to read to me.

All the love for the Fairy Girls ♡

Fairy Tail’s Female Cast and How It Has Consistently Surprised Me

The title alone should have your head cocked with a raised eyebrow. I mean, this is Fairy Tail where every female character has some form of cleavage and the most unflattering of camera angles (sans Wendy thankfully). How the hell would anybody expect anything aside from paper-thin Moe traits to get all hot and bothered over?

That’s what I thought at first myself. ;)

Now I’m not about to go on about how “revolutionary” Fairy Tail is with its female cast. I haven’t read every Manga published in a Shonen Magazine or seen every Anime based on them. I know my limits. That being said… I will go about how the series doesn’t nearly get enough credit when it comes to the girls.

One thing about the Fairy Tail Guild is that each member has some amount of personal baggage or another that lead them to Makarov and his ideals of family that go beyond blood. What might seem like a barebones archetype with only a few quirks like Gray’s stripping, Elfman’s sense of manhood or Makarov being a wise old coot are but seasonings to the entree. There’s always a reason why.

Continuar lendo

[thesirenwithnovoice]

A rant coming straight from heart: having critical sense is great. But sometimes, we need to understand the limitations of the genre and the industry a work is inserted, and that it's okay to enjoy it even so. OF COURSE there are genius and avant-garde writers that manage to break the tropes and it's amazing, but if it's not the case, what are the reasons that make you still enjoy this work?

I spent years censoring myself for enjoying FT because of the "awful fanservice", for one of the most worshipped mangas of 2022 being one in which the premise is a man that wants to touch female breasts. So in all honesty, I'm tired.

It's very important to be aware of the flaws in stuff we like, and it's good to write about them sometimes. The problem is when everywhere you look, that's all you see.

I'm not writing this for myself at this point, because I've given up already, but please, take care of your minds. We live in a moment we are more encouraged to express and unite trough hate, than trough what we love- even in spaces that are supposedly made for it. And a friend once said to me that, if I didn't stop complaining and shredding everything I seemed to enjoy until I found every minimal flaw, there would be no happiness that would last.

[thesirenwithnovoice]

A rant coming straight from heart: having critical sense is great. But sometimes, we need to understand the limitations of the genre and the industry a work is inserted, and that it's okay to enjoy it even so. OF COURSE there are genius and avant-garde writers that manage to break the tropes and it's amazing, but if it's not the case, what are the reasons that make you still enjoy this work?

I spent years censoring myself for enjoying FT because of the "awful fanservice", for one of the most worshipped mangas of 2022 being one in which the premise is a man that wants to touch female breasts. So in all honesty, I'm tired.

It's very important to be aware of the flaws in stuff we like, and it's good to write about them sometimes. The problem is when everywhere you look, that's all you see.

I'm not writing this for myself at this point, because I've given up already, but please, take care of your minds. We live in a moment we are more encouraged to express and unite trough hate, than trough what we love- even in spaces that are supposedly made for it. And a friend once said to me that, if I didn't stop complaining and shredding everything I seemed to enjoy until I found every minimal flaw, there would be no happiness that would last.

[thesirenwithnovoice]

the big three questions of media analysis: what the author wanted to say, what they actually said, and what they didn’t know they were saying

[thesirenwithnovoice]

[thesirenwithnovoice]

"Why didn't they just communicate?? They're so stupid!" Have you considered that communicating with someone you love and value and don't want to hurt is scary and that vulnerability takes practice and that perfect characters with perfect words make the most boring stories of all

[thesirenwithnovoice]

Spoiler 👁️👁️

[thesirenwithnovoice]

*struggles while writing* i suck and writing is hard

*remembers some ppl use ai* i am a creative force. i am uncorrupted by theft and indolence. i am on a journey to excellence. it is my duty to keep taking joy in creating.

[thesirenwithnovoice]

when in doubt about whether or not to make a thing, do it for your 3 hardcore fans.

[thesirenwithnovoice]

they grow up so fast!

(thanks for putting the idea in my head, chip :’>)

[thesirenwithnovoice]

Metal gear rising my beloved

Extra messy doodle:

[thesirenwithnovoice]

Thoughts about how different mediums of a same story may give you different views (and rambling about the Tower of Heaven)//TW: violence

Lately I've been wondering about how manga readers might have very different visions than anime watchers of a same story, because althought the plot remains the same, some little details can change our whole perception of a story.

This reminded me of the first time I read Fairy Tail and how terrified I was at how cruel and dark the Tower of Heaven's arc is.

Jellal's face (that by that time, were only an 11-years-old kid) drippling blood while being tortured shocked me so much as a kid and I still find it one of the most disturbing scenes in the manga, lol.

In the anime, the content itself is the same. We know the kids are slaves that go throught different kinds of abuse, however, I find the manga way gloomier and more graphic. And althought part of it might be just a personal opinion, it's not entirely without basis: Mashima uses different techniques in his art to represent facts whitin the story than the animators, and it leads to a topic I really love: semiotics - how we interpret images, and how detais can be used to convey a certain felling throught art.

Colors and composition helps A LOT creating an atmosphere and causing a feeling on the reader. Proportionally speaking, a manga doesn't have colors, but it has it's own alternatives - the Tower of Heaven arc, in comparison to the rest of the manga, uses a lot more black and hatching.

One can argue some scenes are still "visually darker" in the anime, since it has the advantage of being able to play with shadows and colors in a broader aspect; however, since Fairy Tail is not an anime that changes it's saturation or colour pallete, the loud colors in most scenes end up not helping building the same dreadful atmosphere.

(It doesn't mean you can't make a scary story using bright and colorful tones, tho. A great example is the movie Midsommar. But it's not an easy task!)

Erza's childhood memories in the manga also carry a "dirtier" feeling; the kids are always covered by bruises, and the background is rougher. Also, the anime chooses to represent slavery in a more fanciful way: the kids wear stylized handcuffs and are assaulted with magic attacks, what inevitably softens the scenes by distancing them from real life slavery.

In a story, an act of violence will always be more shocking if your brain is able to automatically make a connection with real life. Seeing blood conveys a feeling of disconfort easier than a character being hit by a wave of magic, even if the author tells you "this is painful"; that's why some people say they started to find difficult to watch horror movies involving kids after becoming parents, because after experenciating something in real life, they connect with fiction harder.

The above scene causes me very different feelings in each media. In the manga, the despair in Jellal's face when seeing they removed Erza's eye is much clearer, and his skinny body, his eyes filling up with tears (he doesn't cry in the anime) shows not only a feeling of worry, but of utter dread and helplessness. All that helps endorsing the fact that, doesn't matter how brave he is, they are still just fragile kids, unable to protect themselves from the cruelty of the world around them.

I want to make it clear, though, that this is not in any way meant to be a critique to the animation team, or an affirmation that one type of media is better than another. We all have our personal preferences, but each media has it's target audience and objective. Fairy Tail's animators certainly do know how to convey the same feelings on the public, they just choose not to, for a variety of reasons. Probably because the anime is aimed for a broader and younger audience, many scenes have been softened or censored somehow. Also, animation consumes more labour than a manga page, so unless you have a lot of time and investment, the art tend to be simpler.

So do you think it affects the plot, Siren?

In my opinion, yes, even if just in a subtle way. In the manga, I think this raw brutality helps Jellal's character to gain a more interesting complexity. To me, he feels less like a hero and more like what he actually is: just a really kind and brave kid trying his best to protect his friends.

Another major change they made in the anime was removing the ambiguity (something that happened more than once in Fairy Tail's adaptation, such as in the famous kiss scene), leaving clear since the beginning that Jellal was a victim of a mind controlling spell; while in the manga, until Urtear's confirmation at the end of the arc, we do not know for sure if he have been brainwashed or just convinced to adore Zeref.

And as much as I can see why some fans might hate it because it leaves room for people to see Jellal as a bad man, I (as someone who is not afraid of loving evil characters, heh), find it interesting and somehow enriching to the plot, because it gives the whole arc a reflection: is extreme suffering, specially at such an young age, capable of changing someone so much?

We are left questioning what did "Zeref" say, or do, that made him change so much. And having so many real life examples where despair has made people easy victims of manipulation throught faith or falling into extremist ideologies, after we seeing Jellal's pain and fragility in a tangible way, it's not that hard at all to understand how he went insane and managed to drag all the other slaves along with him.

Also, I think it makes it easier to understand Erza's empathy towards him. Jellal and Erza are characters connected not only by the affection they nourish for one another, but also for sharing the same pain. She is the only person that fully understands the horrors he lived in the tower, since they were the only kids that have been in the torture chamber. And althought she never tries to justify Jellal's actions, Erza does not only show him compreension, but she feels guilty for not being able to retribute his protection and prevented him from losing his mind.

That doesn't mean, tho, that there weren't many other clues he was not acting on free will: be it his grotesque change of personality, his hysterical laughter out of nowhere or his motivations that doesn't hold (because they were never his to begin with). To me, all that at first glance makes him closer to Batman's Joker, someone that grew insane after so much suffering, than a villain that's genuinely just plain selfish and thirsty for power. And that only makes me find him a creepier villain, since personally, I find sadism and insanity way scarier than ghosts.

So this is just a looong collection of thoughts about how small choices can change a lot the "feeling" we get from a scene or a character. I hope someone can find it interesting too. There are many other examples of adaptations where it happened, and if you remember one you'd like to share, I would love to hear!

Last but not less important, all the love for Mashima's art, the Tower of Heaven arc (that is a personal favorite) and Jellal, a character I deeply love and one that holds for sure the strongest spirit in the manga for being able to become such a kind and mature man despite everything he has been thought. ♡

[thesirenwithnovoice]

Random addition but I wanna reiterate how meaningful are these words she said.

She probably thought he was dead. Elza has been missing him since she left the tower, when she was still a little girl, and grew up with him inhabiting her mind as a painful memory - and even when they finally reunite again, she's scared because at any time he can be taken away by the council or, as he expressed, even by his own depression.

After everything they have been through, can you just imagine how meaningful it must be for them to simply be able to casually chat, see each other and just spend some peaceful time together??

I love them.

Saudade.

Portuguese word that refers to the melancholic longing or yearning for a beloved, yet absent, something or someone.

[thesirenwithnovoice]

“Bath Time”When you say nothing at all🪥

[thesirenwithnovoice]

Scarlet ❤️🩸

Reference study. I'm not quite sure if I like or hate the result, so I might try redoing it later.

[thesirenwithnovoice]

Acknowledging that “critical thinking” means “thinking about things in a thorough way from different perspectives” and not “finding every flaw in a thing and fixating on it until all the joy is gone” is so liberating.

It’s supposed to be about intellectual curiosity, not about finding ways to devalue things that aren’t perfect or that we personally dislike.

[thesirenwithnovoice]

On Siren being a huge nerd today's episode, there's an example of how details can change or add to the overall meaning of an image that I find pretty interesting:

In the anime, it's a cute scene in which we can see a bit of how Erza sees Jellal and how he used to always encourage his friends. In the manga, it's also sweet, but there are some subtle differences:

The change in details allows us know a little more about the dynamics between the kids, specially the older two: Wally and Simon realize Erza's shy reaction when Jellal talks to her, and both have different reactions to it - Wally making a teasingly gesture and Simon being the only one looking unpleased (details that we know will be very relevant later in the story).

(Noting that I'm just comparing one frame isolatedly, what doesn't necessarily mean you can't get the same conclusion in the anime throught other scenes! My point here is just to highlight how simple expression changes can add meaning and different information to a single image, what I do not only find interesting as a reader, but also very useful as an artist as a way to enrich our drawings. If we only had this single scene to compare, maybe in the anime version Simon's jealousy wouldn't be so clear, nor Wally's awareness of Elza innocent crush.)

Now, one might think I'm criticizing Simon's character for loving how the manga reinforces it, but actually, it's an aspect that I appreciate a lot: in Fairy Tail, there's no dicotomy, or saint. Even the man that bravely sacrificed his life to save Erza, has always suffered from one sin: envy.

And poetically, I think in his death, Simon finally became the man he always wished to be; Erza said Jellal used to be admired for his leadership qualities, and he was always ready to sacrifice his well being for his friends without a hinge of hesitation - however, it had never been an easy role to play. We can't blame Simon, or anyone, for having not been like him; after all, being a hero comes at a high cost: for Jellal, his sanity, and for Simon, his own life.